The Grimm Rose
by Amphiptere Galeru
Summary: A young Ruby Rose ends up being taken and experimented on by Dr. Merlot when she stumbles upon him while searching for her mother. These experiments leave her changed, and not necessarily for the better. With the help of a strange voice in her head, she attempts an escape, but will she end up in the hands of those who have Remnants best interest in mind? (My first fanfic)
1. Chapter 1

Four year old Ruby Rose walked alone through the forests of Patch with determination. Determination to find her mommy. She was going to find her mommy because daddy and big sis were sad that mommy was gone. She had asked where her mom had gone multiple times before, but the only answer she ever got was "she's gone." So what better way to cheer them up than to bring her mom home!

Little Ruby did not just wander out with only the clothes on her back though. She had come prepared. In a small backpack she carried a change of clothes, some cookies for when she got hungry, her favorite stuffed Beowolf Mr. Snuggle Face, and although given to her quite recently, her most cherished possession. A bright red hooded cloak that was rather big on her tiny body was clipped to her shoulders. It was a gift given to her by her mom before she left on her most recent hunting mission.

* * *

 _Summer Rose walked into the kitchen to find her youngest daughter devouring the batch of cookies that she had maid earlier that day._

 _Smiling at the adorable little girl in front of her she spoke up. "Now now little rose, if you keep eating cookies that fast you will get sick." she told Ruby._

 _"But the're so tasty!" Was the immediate response._

 _"Well how about this? If you save the rest of the cookies for later, I'll give you that present I was telling you about this_ _morning." Summer watched as Ruby's eyes lit up with joy, and started nodding her head so fast it looked like it might fall off._

 _"Alright then, come on." She said as she held out her hand for Ruby._

 _When she grabbed on, Summer lead her out into the middle of the living room. Keeling down to face Ruby at eye level. "Okay Ruby, close your eyes and wait here. I'll be right back with your gift." she spoke._

 _When Ruby closed her eyes, Summer got up and walked to a simple wooden box sitting on the couch. Opening the top she pulled out the red fabric, smiling at her handy work. walking back over to Ruby, she knelt down again and draped the fabric over her small shoulders using two cross shaped pins to keep it from falling off._

 _"You can open your eyes now little rose." she said softly._

 _As Ruby opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder. Summer watched as those eyes snapped back to herself wide as dinner plates, and if she didn't know any better she would have swore they were sparkling._

 _"It's just like the one you have!" The little girl squealed, wrapping her mom in a surprisingly strong hug. Slightly taken off guard by the strength of the hug, Summer quickly returned it with a smile that could blind someone if they looked at it for to long._

 _"I made this cloak myself, so where ever you go now, you can always have a piece of me with you." Summer could feel Ruby just vibrate with happiness. Hearing footsteps coming down the stairs by the front door, she looked over and saw her husband Taiyang descending the steps._

 _"Everything alright down here?" He asked, as Summer just gave him a smile._

 _"Yes everything is fine, Ruby just got exited getting the cloak I made for her. Isn't that right little ros-" She stopped mid sentence when she looked down to Ruby, only to finder her slumped against he shoulder sleeping._

 _"looks like she tuckered herself out." she spoke softly. Looking back up at Tai, she continued. "I'll take her up to bed, and start getting ready for my mission."_

 _Tai adopted a thoughtful look before speaking. "That's right, your leaving for that tonight aren't you? Just remember to be safe, you've got two beautiful daughters to come home too."_

 _"I know." she smiled. "I'll only be gone for a week. A week and a half at most." Picking up the sleeping Ruby she made her way towards the stairs. As she passed her husband he spoke up._

 _"I'll make some dinner before you head out."_

 _"thank you." she responded as she made her way upstairs to tuck Ruby in._

* * *

 _It had been three weeks since her mom went out on her mission. Ruby had noticed a big change in the house ever since the man with grey hair and a green suit stopped by the house a few days ago to talk to her dad. Ever since then her dad had been crying almost all day everyday. When she asked what was wrong, the only words he managed to choke out were "Your mom is gone." Before breaking down again._

 _It started to really worry her when her sister Yang started acting the same way. Any and all attempts at cheering them up were met with failure._

 _She didn't really understand why they were sad that mommy was gone. Yeah she was out hunting right now, but she always came back. It was then that an amazing idea sprang into her mind._

 _If If daddy and big sis were sad that mommy was gone, she would just have to go out and bring her back to make them happy again. It was so simple!_

 _So with her super mega awesome plan to make dad and Yang happy again in mind, she ran to her room to start preparing._

* * *

Realizing that she had stopped walking while lost in thought, she started walking through the forest again.

The forest was not the first place she had thought to look, but this was the last place she could think of! Everywhere else was a bust, the market, the candy shop run by the nice old man, even the fishing pier, but she couldn't find her anywhere. Even when she worked up the courage to ask someone if they had seen her, the only response she got was a sad expression on their face and them telling her to ask her dad. So here she was walking through the woods trying to find her mom.

Little silver eyes looked around for any signs of her mother, but yet again they came up empty. Letting out a small sigh, the crimson cloaked girl sat down and took off her backpack to grab her cookies. It was getting late, and she was pretty sure that she missed dinner.

She let out a triumphant "Aha!" as she pulled them out. But before she could open the bag of cookies, she heard a low menacing growl.

The rest of her body froze as her head slowly turned towards the noise.

What she saw caused her blood to run cold. Stepping out from behind a cluster of trees was a beast with fur blacker than night, a mask of bone covering its face, and soulless red eyes that seemed to boar into her very being. It was a creature of Grimm. A Beowolf to be precise.

Ruby sat there stunned for a moment. She had never seen a creature of Grimm in person before. So she sat there not quite sure what to do, until she remembered what her mom and dad had told her to do if she ever came upon one of these creatures alone.

She got up and ran.

* * *

 **A.n. Well that was the first chapter to "The Grimm Rose" It's rather short, but I plan to have longer chapters in the future. This is my first fanfic ever so hopefully it wasn't too bad. Feel free to tell me if you liked it so far, or perhaps you didn't. I will gladly take constructive criticism! The awesome cover art for this story belongs to Hessenerd on Tumblr. Though it was not commissioned for this fanfic, it is what inspired this story so I asked for permission to use it. The next chapter will be out within the next day or so, so keep en eye out for that. The rating may change in the future.**


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby was running, running as fast as her little legs would let her. The sounds of heavy foot falls and vicious growling were getting closer by the second. Weaving around trees, jumping over roots, dashing through bushes, she was trying to put anything and everything between her and the Beowolf. Ruby felt like she had been running for hours, but it was probably no more than a few minutes. Even with all the adrenaline pumping through her veins, the crimson haired girls young body could only run for so long.

As she was starting to slow down, Ruby dared to take a peak over her shoulder. That action proved to be a costly mistake, and a saving grace at the same time. For when she looked back her foot caught on a large root, causing her to fall to the ground face first, but that action sent the Beowolf that was already mid pounce sailing strait over her head into a large tree. The resounding *THUD* of the impact, made Ruby lift her head to see what had caused the sound. The sight that greeted her only served to send her fearful mind into an all out panic. The Beowolf was already back on its feet, walking towards her. It didn't even look affected by the impact with the tree.

Ruby started scrambling backwards on all fours. She only made if a few feet before her back made contact with something solid. Looking left her eyes widened. She had back right into a tree! But before she could even finish possessing this, the creature of Grimm lunged forward, sinking its teeth into the little girls right shoulder. Ruby's vision turned white as she screamed in agony.

'Mommy, Help me!' Was the only coherent thought that entered Ruby's mind.

Then, ever so slowly a warmth started enveloping her body. Starting from her chest and spreading out from there. Then immense pain in her shoulder started to died down. It still hurt like there was no tomorrow, but she could think again. And with her newfound clarity in thought, she did the first thing popped into her head.

She balled her little fist, and punched the Beowolf right in the eye. Releasing her shoulder to howl in pain, the Beowolf staggered back. Using the opportunity that was given to her by this newfound warmth, Ruby got up and started running again.

Repeating the same thought over and over, Ruby kept telling herself. 'Faster, I need to run faster!'

As if in response to her mental plea, her legs started to get a tingling feeling in them, almost like they were charged with electricity. The next thing Ruby knew, the forest was passing by in a blur. She could barely keep up with herself to doge the trees in her path. Even though she was traveling at such high speeds, Ruby wasn't scared, it felt like she left all her pain, all her problems in the dust. It felt _amazing_!

Ruby closed her eyes as she burst into a clearing, relishing in this new sensation. Right when she was opening her eyes, she felt herself collide with something _very_ solid, and everything went black.

* * *

Dr. Merlot was in a very good mood today. He had just finished moving his laboratory to a new location, his Grimm experiments were coming along nicely, and now he was out here in the forests of Patch to test his new prototype robot.

The reason he was testing his new robot in Patch was because Patch was home to almost solely Beowolfs. This provided a very nice proving ground for his robot, since Beowolfs were fairly weak unless they were large in number. If his new creation failed here, it was simply back to the drawing board, but if not, he could bring it somewhere like the Emerald Forest or Forever Fall to test its limits. Then it was only a matter or rinse and repeat until he was satisfied with the results.

He was wander the island looking for a nice clearing in the woods to begin his test. Though he took care as to stay far away from the single town that resided on the island, as to not draw any unwanted attention to himself.

After wandering for a while, he came upon a fairly large clearing. 'This should do nicely.' He thought, but before he could even give the command for his robot to prepare for combat, a crimson blur with what appeared to be rose petals following it shot out of the other end of the clearing and slammed strait into his prototype.

Turning to his creation, he found it was now sporting a large dent in its chest armor that was now sparking very badly. It looked like it was about to collapse. He sighed. 'Note to self, increase chest armor thickness.'

Looking down to see what caused the damage to his robot, he was very surprised to find out that it was a little girl in a red hooded cloak, no more than five years old if he had to guess, collapsed on the ground unconscious and bleeding from her right shoulder. He could only stare in bewilderment as he realized that a _child_ had nearly destroyed his creation by _headbutting_ it. By all rights this girls head should be caved in from such an impact, but as he got closer to examine the child a thought came to mind. 'Does this girl have her aura unlocked?!' The youngest age he had ever herd someone willingly unlocking a child's aura unlocked was eight years old. The reason most waited to unlock a child's aura was because if they had a dangerous semblance that they couldn't control, they could become a danger to themselves and those around them.

Then another thought popped into his head. 'Perhaps it wasn't unlocked by someone else. Perhaps it was unlocked in a time of dire need?' Judging by the slowly closing wound on her shoulder, that time of need might not have been very long ago.

Now he was presented with some options, he could do the 'right thing' and bring her into town and find whoever her parent or guardian was, he could leave her here to most likely be eaten by a Beowolf or two, or he could take the girl with him. The second option was out the window as soon as it came to mind. He may be considered a "monster" by some, but he was not so cruel as to leave a child to die in a forest. The first option would bring unwanted attention to himself. People would ask question like "Why where you out there?, What's your name?, Are you a huntsman?" and that would just not do, but the third option presented an unparalleled opportunity. He could use this child to further his experiments, while the thought of experimenting on a child wasn't the most thrilling, he would persevere for the progression of science!

With his decision made, he called his prototype to follow him. Merlot knelt down and picked up the girl being careful not to aggravate her closing wound. With the girl in hand, he stood back up and started to head back to the small boat he had brought. His robotics testing could be put on hold for now. He now had a more important project to work on.

* * *

 **A.n. 30 followers, 14 favorites, and 4 reviews. Wow... just. Wow. It hasn't even been one full day, and my expectations were blown sky high. I did not expect this much traffic so soon. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Hopefully I will meet your expectations with this story. Just seeing that people want to read this makes me want to try my best for this story. Thanks for the reviews with advice and encouragement those really boosted my confidence.**

 **Well hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. The next chapter will be out tomorrow around this time.**

 **P.S. Is pacing to fast? or is it fine as is?**

 **P.P.S sorry abut the rapid succession** **updates, I keep catching things I missed in my once through before posting.**


	3. Chapter 3

Ruby groaned and she slowly sat up. She felt like she had taken a really long nap, but at the same time felt like she had gotten no sleep at all. Looking around groggily she froze. This was not her bedroom, or anywhere in her house for that matter. The only things in the grey scale room were the bed, which she was currently sitting on, tucked in one corner, a toilet a few feet to the right right, a single light in the ceiling, and what appeared to be a door on the far wall. Getting up from the bed, she cautiously made her way to the door, only to realize that it had no handle.

 _'Maybe it's one of those doors you just have to push to open?'_ she thought. Giving it a good push, she was saddened to see that it didn't move one bit.

So for the next ten minutes, she tried opening the door in various ways such as, asking it nicely, or yelling "Open sesame!" to no result.

Falling face first onto the bed in defeat, Ruby just staid like that for a while. Then, a sad realization came to Ruby's young mind. If she couldn't get out of here, she couldn't find her mommy, or even go home to her dad and big sis. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she started crying. She didn't know how long she cried for, but even after the tears ran dry, Ruby just laid there, staring at the wall.

* * *

She didn't even realize she fell asleep, until she was startled awake by a loud mechanical noise. Looking towards the door, Ruby saw that it was open with a man standing on the other side. He wore a grey jacket, had messy gray hair with a similarly colored mustache and beard, but the things that caught her attention the most, were his glowing red left eye, and his metal right arm.

Stepping into the room his eyes settled on her. "Ah, you'r finally awake I see, And it seems that your shoulder has healed up nicely." He said.

"W-who are you?" Ruby stuttered, as she backed into the corner of her bed farthest away from the scary looking man.

"Oh, how rude of me. I never introduced myself. My name is Dr. Merlot, whats your name?" He asked.

"Ruby Rose." Was her quiet response.

"Well Ruby, now that your awake, we can begin the tests." He stated with a smile.

"Tests, w-what tests?" She asked.

His smile widened as he responded. "You are going to be my test subject that will help me understand the mysteries of aura, and push the boundaries of human evolution!"

"But I just want to go home!" The red cloaked girl exclaimed, as tears started forming in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go home, not while I can make use of you here." Stepping closer to the girl, his smile now gone, tone becoming serious he continued.

"Now then, I will be taking you to the lab to begin testing. If you behave and listen to me, you will be rewarded. These rewards could vary from getting toys/stuffed animals to play with in your spare time, to books to read and learn from, better meals, or even a nicer room to live in.

But if you misbehave and resist me, you will be punished. Like the rewards, these can vary from getting some of your rewards taken away, to various physical punishments. And make no mistake, these punishments will not be light.

So, what will it be? Listen and be rewarded, or disobey, be punished, and forced to participate antway?" Stepping back Merlot gave the girl a minute to think.

After several minutes of crying and sobbing, Ruby slowly got off the bed. With her head down, tears still flowing she gave her response.

"I'll listen."

It was spoken so softly Merlot almost didn't hear her.

"A good choice. Follow me and we shall begin." He said.

Turning around Dr. Merlot left the room, followed slowly by the now silently sobbing Ruby Rose.

* * *

 _[Subject Log #343]_

 _Subject Name: Ruby Rose  
Gender: Female  
Age: 4-5 years old  
Height: 3 foot 4 inches  
Hair Color: Black with red tips  
Eye Color: Silver  
Date of Birth: Unknown_

 _Subject was brought to the infirmary for a full physical evaluation._

 _Light scarring found on the right shoulder. Cause unknown. The most probable cause is a large wolf, or Beowolf bite._

 _The subjects aura was is indeed unlocked, as speculated when the subject was first found and brought in._

 _Further examination showed that the subject to be in good physical health. Testing is to begin effective immediately._

* * *

Ruby screamed out in pain as her aura shattered and a bullet smashed through her left shin. Crying out again as she landed or her left arm, which was currently in a cast and sling.

Rolling onto her right side she just stayed there withering in pane.

"Alright I think I have enough data on how much more strain your aura can take before giving out. The medical bot will take you down to the infirmary to be treated. You can have the next two weeks off to allow your injuries to heal." Merlot didn't even look at her as he spoke, setting the pistol he was holding aside, and entering data onto a large scroll.

Snapping his fingers a door slid open, and a red and white robot came out made its way over to the now unconscious Ruby. Bending down it picked her up and left the room.

When Ruby woke up, the first thing she noticed was the pain. Everything hurt, it felt like she could barely move. It had only been a few hours since Merlot finished testing the limits of her aura, and she was really feeling the effects of it. Heck her left arm and leg were broken because if it!

Finally looking around, she noticed that she was back in her room. It had changed somewhat in the weeks she had been trapped here. There was now a simple red rug covering most of the floor, a small bookshelf that held books ranging from fairy tails to early education, and finally there was a beowolf stuffed animal sitting next to her on the bed.

"I just wanna go home." She mumbled, as she pulled the stuffed Beowolf to her chest using her good arm.

She wanted to be strong like the heroes in the story books. If she was strong like them, she could break out and go home. If she was strong, her arm and leg wouldn't be broken. If she was, she would be safe at home, not stuck in this nightmare. But she wasn't. She was not strong. Before Ruby could start crying again, a new much more positive thought cam to mind as she started to drift off to sleep.

 _'If I'm not strong, then I need to become strong. No matter how long it takes, I will get strong like the heroes in the books. I_ _ **will**_ _get out of here and go home.'_

With her new plan of "getting strong", Ruby fell asleep. Even with her injuries, she had the first peaceful night of sleep since being taken by Dr. Merlot.

* * *

 **A.n. And there is chapter 3, sorry for not posting this sooner, real life things needed my attention. Just so you know, I won't be writing out every experiment/test Merlot preforms. Some will be seen through flashbacks/nightmares, but other more "tame" ones will not always be mentioned. Anyways thanks for the reviews telling me that the pacing/grammar was fine, I don't want this to be too rushed, but I also don't want it to be so slow it's boring. Feel free to let me know if you liked it or not. The next chapter will hopefully be out soon.**


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